SOCOM 4 brings teamwork to shooting games

It's safe to say that the gaming world has been overrun by shooting games that tell Hollywood style stories and provide a fast-paced multiplayer experience that rewards players for individual achievement.

For better or worse, that's what this generation of gamers has spent millions of dollars on.

But every so often a shooting game comes around that dares to be a little different, or at least different enough to notice.

MAG also brought teamwork to shooting games. SVER has the most experienced people and the biggest clans so teamwork is almost instant, but Valor and Raven can win big against SVER on a constant basis when teamwork is implemented... but a lot of newbies go to the other two teams; SVER players doesn't often rotate out.

Been playing this game for the last two months. I joined Valor then. Man, talk about getting your butt kicked over and over, lol. But I made it to level 70. I started a Raven player last night. Totally different results. They are beast in games. I know all about SVER as well. Will be doing them next. I feel MAG is so over looked. I love this game more then COD and BF. Might not look as good or sound as good as BF. But the game play is just on the massive scale with the number of player's. So I never think about it.

"Console COD fans start to consider that maybe having a 'team' means they should work together, only to realize that their game does not facilitate teamwork like some(lots, close to all) other FPS do. SOCOM 4, as it happens, does not stoop as low as possible, and requires SOME effort to communicate, if only the barely discernible grunt now and then."

I never got into them before because they were mainly online, but I love squad based single player shooters (I was right into the first 2 Conflict:Desert Storms at the time) and I like them on the tactical side as well.

Plus I'm dying to have more to do with my Sharpshooter, god I wish Rainbow Six used it, I still play that game.

Now, I wasn't an online gamer in the PS2 era (used dial up back then lol) and when I played the first 2 socoms I played them for the story modes.

I watched a bit of IGNs review and noticed one thing. WHY THE HELL IS MEH SOCOM FILLED WITH EXPLOSIONS AND GUNFIGHTS?????

If I remember properly, the previous games were about stealthily mving through levels and coordinating with Bravo team to get the objectives done. Firefights were unadvisable because of the many hostiles in each level. I watch the review and all I see is helicopter fights and full out firefights. WTF?

I can't comment on the online part because my only Socom experience came from the SOCOM 4 beta, but the way they changed the story mode is really disappointing.

I remember trying my best to not alert anyone (partially to get full honours after the mission and because on the hardest difficulty, the AI would rape you if your cover was blown) and spending hours memorizing the sentry routes. I guess those days are gone :(

This mission was my favourite out of all of them. Frustrating, but awesome.

Socom 4 is not the best Socom to date it copies a lot of other games, got rid of everything that made Socom special(you know how games get old after a couple months, well Socom was always the game you go back to playing, not anymore though)

Socom 4 may be fun, but that doesn't make it a good game by any means. Reviews aren't everything, but with every Socom released by Zipper the average scores keep getting lower and lower.

Zipper made S1, S2, S3, S:CA, and S4. The scores have gone down every time, they refuse to listen to what we want and try to cater the casuals to get more $$$.

For those who have never played Socom, I feel bad for you because you are exactly the type of people Zipper wants right now for S4. You don't know any better.

BUT, for the new players if you were to break down S4 and analyze every aspect you'd clearly see the game is average at best.

S4: -graphics are cartoonish like MAG -gun sounds are very similar and not realistic like in Confrontation or previous Socoms where they actually recorded live gunfire. -removed all original game modes that helped make Socom "Socom" -gave us a garbage over the shoulder camera view that blocks half the screen and has horrible camera collision because of OTS. The patch didn't make things any better. -got rid of lobbies and party system is average at best -weapon customization is now bland -controller configuration is horrible and you can't customize it. I've been using the same Socom controller layout from S3 to S:CA to Confrontation, now they're forcing us to use something completely new. -cover system promotes more camping, the map is more congested with random objects to promote more cover system camping -shooting from cover is way too easy -gun accuracy is horrible -random spawning at beginning is horrible -spawn camping in respawn is horrible -what happened to the excellent map layouts? -the new crosshair looks like something from a circus that I just want to jump through -grenade throwing is now ridiculous, grenades have the weight of a golfball and my player has the strongest arm in the world. -claymores/mines only kill enemy players, what kind of future tech is this, enemy only detecting weapons? -L1 to ADS this isn't a FPS

The flaws are everywhere, only Zipper tries to play it off as some new feature to attract gamers.

It's ok to evolve games keeping the core aspect in place. It's BS to scrap everything, tack on stuff from other games and call it Socom. A series once held by higher standards is now a joke. $25 million and 3 years to make a game worse than Confrontation with a PS2 budget is a FAIL on Zipper's part. Why couldn't they perfect Confrontation and add Campaign/Co-op? That's what majority of the players want.

before you argue please read all that I wrote and watch those vids. You simply cannot deny this game is screwed up so badly even with all the money put into it. This is by far their biggest budget and by far their worst Socom to release.

No no... grenades are like a portable artillery in your hands. I cant count the times during a clan challenge with me getting blown up right at the spawn on that foliage heavy map. Agree, that they need to fix that $hit.

We're still in the beta and zipper reads the forums of players complaints for balance changes.

socom 4 is good but it could be great if they added some features back into the game which i think zipper will. I am still buying it day one.

I dont see why some reviewers are rating it below an 8. If this game is a 6 or 7 than black ops and modern warfare 2 should be the same score or even lower. just playing the beta, this game is more addicting than those two. especially when you play with team players.